(1) Field
The present invention relates generally to recombiner boxes used in the solar industry and, more particularly, to recombiner boxes capable of monitoring the energy output of solar panels in an array, and wirelessly transmitting output data to a central processor.
(2) Related Art
As the world's energy demands have increased, it has become clear that dependence on non-renewable resources is not sustainable from a supply or environmental standpoint. Thus, more attention is being paid to so-called alternative energy such as wind and solar. This attention has led to significant advances in alternative energy technology, to the point that utility companies are increasingly interested in solar generated energy. However, the large-scale production of solar energy requires infrastructure beyond a sunny field full of solar collectors.
Solar collectors, by design, are typically somewhat fragile. In addition, for high-output production, for example utility scale production, collectors are usually spread over a large outdoor area. Given the propensity to break, and the exposure to outdoor variations and hazards, solar collectors experience fluctuations in energy output, technical difficulties, and/or outright failure. Thus, in order to maximize efficiency of a solar energy system, it is important to be able to monitor the solar collectors in an array.
Others have attempted to monitor the output of solar arrays, but known systems are wired, complicated, cumbersome, not amenable to retrofitting pre-existing combiner boxes, and/or difficult to integrate with an existing system.
Thus, there remains a need for a monitoring system that wirelessly monitors the energy output of solar panels in an array. Preferably this system can be integrated with currently existing recombiner boxes to provide retrofitted monitoring capability. Preferably this system powers itself from the collected solar energy, and stores energy for use during lulls, for example through the evening. Preferably this system can communicate wirelessly with other recombiner boxes, thereby creating a mesh network wherein recombiner boxes can reroute their communication if one path is lost. Preferably this system can alert a user when a certain condition is met, for example if the current of an array is significantly lower than another comparable array. Preferably this system is relatively easy and inexpensive to manufacture, transport, install and maintain.